GGD-94-30: Published: Nov 8, 1993. Publicly Released: Nov 8, 1993.

Additional Materials:

Contact:

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) operations, focusing on its progress in supporting other agencies in their efforts to combat money laundering operations.

GAO found that: (1) Treasury established FinCEN in 1991 to serve and assist other law enforcement agencies in identifying, investigating, and prosecuting money laundering activities; (2) FinCEN supports federal, state, local, and foreign authorities by analyzing and disseminating various financial and crime data; (3) the number of law enforcement agencies that request and rely on FinCEN for intelligence data has steadily increased since 1991; (4) the law enforcement community views FinCEN as a valuable asset for tactical support and strategic research; (5) FinCEN generates strategic analyses to assist law enforcement agencies identify emerging trends, patterns, and other issues related to money laundering; (6) although some FinCEN activities are self-initiated, the number of requests by other agencies for specific types of analyses have increased significantly; and (7) although FinCEN has attempted to develop new data systems and improve its ability to coordinate money laundering investigations and identify suspected offenders, its initiatives have not been operational long enough to measure their effectiveness.